The NitroEurope IP – or NEU for short – addresses the major question: What is the effect of reactive nitrogen (Nr) supply on net greenhouse gas budgets for Europe? The main objectives are:

* create robust datasets of N fluxes and net greenhouse-gas exchange (NGE), in relation to C-N cycling of representative European ecosystems.* quantify the effects of past and present global changes, and simulate the observed fluxes of N and NGE. Assess uncertainties in the European model results of N2O and CH4 inventories and refinement of IPCC approaches.* quantify multiple N and C fluxes for contrasting European landscapes, including interactions between farm-scale management, atmospheric and water dispersion, and consideration of the implications for net fluxes and strategies,

Our group is manager of the activity A1.4.4 (in the Component 1: an observing system for N fluxes and pools), which studies what is the importance of the litter production and decomposition on the nitrogen cycle in some European natural areas. We have collaborations with other universities in Europe (Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Hungary, United Kingdom) and we study the production and decomposition of leaf litter in their respective ecosystems, in the others, and in laboratory for investigating the implication of climate on decomposition.

In other hand, our group supplies data to NitroEurope for modelling (A2.3). In the surroundings of Endla lake in Estonia, there is a big complex of raised bogs where the soil flux of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are being measured and studied.